For the chairman and chief executive of Murray Energy, an Ohio-based coal company, the reelection of President Obama was no cause for celebration. It was a time for prayer – and layoffs.

Robert E. Murray read a prayer to a group of company staff members on the day after the election, lamenting the direction of the country and asking: “Lord, please forgive me and anyone with me in Murray Energy Corp. for the decisions that we are now forced to make to preserve the very existence of any of the enterprises that you have helped us build.”

On Wednesday, Murray also laid off 54 people at American Coal, one of his subsidiary companies, and 102 at Utah American Energy, blaming a “war on coal” by the administration of President Barack Obama.”

Murray Energy is the country’s largest privately owned coal mining company, with about 3,000 employees producing about 30 million tons of bituminous coal a year, according to its Web site.

The company was the subject of an article in the New Republic that said the company had forced miners to attend a Romney campaign speech in southeastern Ohio in August. Murray denied the account. The New Republic also reported that Murray Energy employees have given more than $1.4 million to Republican candidates for federal office since 2007.

Murray has also been a target of environmentalists. Notably, the company has spilled coal slurry into a creek on seven different occasions.

82. We certainly at minimum need more cowbell!

20. Fuck him...is there any effective way to boycott his company?

Here's the difference between shit-heads like Murray and the President of the company I work for...my company president addressed the site management yesterday, and had to discuss the new realities of life in the medical device industry under Obamacare's directives to control costs and consolidate testing to improve results.

Did my Company decree layoffs and petulance in the face of a new reality?

NO!!!

We were told that the mission of the company is to protect and improve public health and that we would be smart in dealing with a deflationary market for some of our products by aggressively controlling production costs and efficiencies, but that the planned expansions - including my department's new $10M laboratory project - would proceed as scheduled and that research, development and fighting the ongoing fight for public health improvements would be our focus. We would not be cutting back or laying off, but moving FORWARD! (BTW....my company is French owned and operates globally; but has a large manufacturing presence in the US, ironically in red states MO. and NC. as well as IL.)

I cannot tell you how inspiring that message was to hear. We will be directly impacted by Obamacare as consolidations mean fewer small labs to sell to and more large testing companies able to negotiate price reductions, but we are not going to sit on our hands and piss and moan about it. We are going to rededicate the company to the future and to new products that serve our mission of improving Public Health worldwide.

I could not be more proud of my company's stated response to having to operate in a new reality and the fact that it is the polar opposite of the piece of shit firing workers out of spite makes it all the more meaningful to me.

24. He has a lot more to pray for forgiveness about than just laying off some people

"Murray and his companies received national attention in August 2007 when six miners were trapped at the Crandall Canyon Mine in Utah, of which Murray Energy independent operating subsidiary UtahAmerican Energy had been a part-owner for 12 months. He says that the safety violations were trivial"

This is the asshat that killed the miners by doing the dangerous practice of "retreat mining" where you intentionally collapse the mine on the way out (removing the walls and pillars that you left to support rooms above you on the way in).

27. Oh, die already, you murderous polluter. nt

28. Pure spite. So unprofessional

If he's laying people off for any reason other than hard numbers on the balance sheet, he shouldn't be running a business. If those people weren't essential for day to day operation of the company, he shouldn't be heading a business.

I have a feeling that he'll either have to hire new employees to replace those he so hastily retired, or he'll need to curtail production and hurt the company. Once again, he shouldn't be in charge if he makes decisions based on who's in the White House.

If he thought Mitt Romney was going to assure that we'd all soon be fueling our furnaces, water heaters, and newly built power plants with his coal, it's time for his kids to take the car keys before he hurts someone. It's so sad when the human body outlasts the mind.

"An ethics watchdog group wants to know whether an Ohio coal company violated federal election rules by forcing employees to donate to Mitt Romney's presidential campaign. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington sent a complaint to the Federal Election Commission on Tuesday alleging that Murray Energy and its CEO Robert Murray "coerced" company employees to make contributions to its political action committee (PAC).

When contacted about the interview on Monday afternoon, Murray Energy spokesman Gary Broadbent emailed this statement: "Rob Moore made it abundantly clear that no employees were forced to attend the Romney event. All participation was, and always has been, completely voluntary."

Blomquist said that he got multiple emails and phone calls from Murray Energy workers who felt that they were intimidated into attending Romney's appearance. He said employees were told they'd have to forfeit the day's pay unless they could make up their missed hours on overtime or weekends.

"My whole point is that nobody should be pressured into attending anyone's political event," Blomquist told The Plain Dealer. "If they shut the mine down, why should they lose a day's pay? There are some guys that just want to go to work, feed their family and go home."

Romney used his appearance at the coal mine to blast what he called a "war on coal" by the Obama administration that he said was costing jobs in the coal industry.

34. there is an extra hot place in hell waiting for him

35. The man's a miserable prick

This is pure, vengeful grandstanding at the expense of innocent people's livelihoods.

The election itself is no cause for a layoff. A very real downturn has to begin before layoff decisions are calculated and executed. And, those calculations have to based on real projections of future business as balanced with the internal resources needed to meet business objectives and remain profitable. I say it's too early in the President's second term (he was elected three days ago) to have these calculations completed.

But, it sounds to me like this guys is pulling the layoff trigger based on vague assumptions and "his feelings" about how the government's policies under Obama might affect his business. That's quite a data-vacuum in which to be making a decision to lay off specific numbers of people.

This is a temper tantrum, it's total partisan bullshit and smells like a stunt.

I'd like to keep my eye on this company and see if they quietly re-hire people in the coming months.

38. That's Good

For the coal miners. They'll be able to get in on the ground floor of the new energy economy President Obama began to create with his American Recovery And Reinvestment Act.

The treatment of coal miners by coal companies is a matter of historical record.

Here's the complete prayer:

Mr. Robert E. Murray's Prayer, as shared with his workers:

Dear Lord:

The American people have made their choice. They have decided that America must change its course, away from the principals of our Founders. And, away from the idea of individual freedom and individual responsibility. Away from capitalism, economic responsibility, and personal acceptance.

We are a Country in favor of redistribution, national weakness and reduced standard of living and lower and lower levels of personal freedom.

My regret, Lord, is that our young people, including those in my own family, never will know what America was like or might have been. They will pay the price in their reduced standard of living and, most especially, reduced freedom.

The takers outvoted the producers. In response to this, I have turned to my Bible and in II Peter, Chapter 1, verses 4-9 it says, "To faith we are to add goodness; to goodness, knowledge; to knowledge, self control; to self control, perseverance; to perseverance, godliness; to godliness, kindness; to brotherly kindness, love."

Lord, please forgive me and anyone with me in Murray Energy Corp. for the decisions that we are now forced to make to preserve the very existence of any of the enterprises that you have helped us build. We ask for your guidance in this drastic time with the drastic decisions that will be made to have any hope of our survival as an American business enterprise.

Amen.

As much as he's like to find a scapegoat for being on the wrong side of history, economics and energy development, Murray is going to have to have to do better than lay off a few employees as a sacrifice.

40. Isn't there something with the DOJ too going on?

He was out of business since the cave in pretty much...it exposed too many things he should have taken care of along the way instead of trying to mine on the cheap. This is what happens when someone runs their business for greed instead of income.

42. The asshole mine owner prays to the right god

Murray like his god is a dyspeptic old fart who puts people out of work on a whim. Myth has it that Murray's god wiped out almost all of humanity with a flood because he didn't like something about them. And this god is promising to wipe out almost everyone again at "the end of time". Like Murray like god.

54. This douche just reinforced what a lot of working class folks have known for years.

Suck the boss's balls or get a fuckstick up their asses. This ought to be used by every (remaining) labor union in the country for the rest of recorded time to remind folks of what's it means to be nothing in the minds of people that genuinely believe that their employees are robbing of them of greater riches. Hope this shitass dies in one of his own mines.

48. A coal /steel chump was the only guy I lost my temper with this year.

He started trying to lecture me about how "regalations" were killing the coal and steel industries, and that his employer was warning him that if President Obama was reelected he would lose his job.

"What evidence do you have that they are telling you the truth?" I said. "Why would they not lie to you to get you to vote for their tax breaks, then fire you anyway when it is most profitable to them? Why would you trust anyone who dares to threaten your job over your private vote?"

"Oh, they wouldn't do that," he said.

"Ever hear of Bethlehem? Or Pittsburgh? Virginia is a right to work state, so your job will disappear overnight instead of over eight years."

"Oh, that was a long time ago. We don't get our steel from there anymore. We get our steel from Des Moines." (From Pittsburgh Steel... in Des Moines, where the remnants of the industry moved to punish Pennsylvanians for being so Democratic and environmentally conscious.)

"Iowa is going to reelect the President, too. Why won't they just kill that industry there to punish those people, and by extension, kill your own job here?" By now he had that walls-closing-in look and he was muttering to himself as he headed for the door, the ugly truth nipping at his heels.

I don't think I helped him at all, but it helped me. I'm tired of standing in the shambles of a nation destroyed by a truth that most have never seen. You want to talk your bullshit with me, I'll roll out the fucking horror show, because I saw it all firsthand.

49. Too Numerous to Count.

TONS of corporations around the country are doing this, I was reading about it on different websites yesterday. It's obviously only out of spite, and GREED, the product of unbridled capitalism. Nothing has financially changed overnight for these corporations, why do they need to lay off workers all of a sudden?

I say we take them down. Pass some new laws protecting employees, and bring Unions back.

Oh WAAAA WAAAAA fucking rich gluttonous bastard CEO just cannot bear to take a pay cut himself out of his multi-millions instead to help others. Can't have that can we?

50. And then this...

from Think Progress:

"One of the laid off workers took to Reddit today to answer questions. He said, “Despite the fact that nothing has changed in the two days since the election they decide to lay off employees. I’ve seen how corrupt the company can be over the years and am fairly certain the layoffs are just a way to make the President look bad.”

56. Wouldn't doubt it for a second

I have some contacts at the Century Mine, so I'm going to see if I can find out who was laid off and why. I suspect it's be the miners who went to the press and objected to being made an unpaid photo-op for the Romney campaign.

69. Railroads......

As for the layoff of the employees it’s my opinion he just using OB as an excuse for the layoff. Only looking at the balance sheet would tell the truth, my guess is the rail cost of hauling coal over the railroad, that is very costly…. no wonder, the power plants are using nat. gas as source of fuel for their plants.

74. If That Isn't Voter Intimidation, If Not Economic Terrorism, I Am Not Sure What Is

Seriously, if President Obama wins, I am going fire a couple hundred employees at random. Just think about that as you go into the voting booth. Of course, there is no promise that no employees will not be fired if Romney wins, but now you have some sick show of firing employees in retaliation for a President Obama win.